I was and I wasn't - and in fact we knew we didn't really have a shot at getting to the economic buyer who made the choice to spend stupid money. But that's kinda my point - most of us are talking to mid-level management and down when we are interacting as solo operators / small consultancies into larger clients. That Director you are interacting with likely doesn't have the authority to authorize anything beyond a consulting contract at $xxx /hour as they are going to have someone in finance scrutinizing their spend.